Kids Karnival

Brennan has been talking about the Kids Karnival since we went last year. I can't tell you how excited he was when the sign advertising it was coming back went up a few weeks ago. Kyle and I had plans last night, so we promised B we'd go Saturday morning right at 11 when it opened. It was the most gorgeous day of the year so far and perfect for going. Brennan rode a few rides, but wanted to play a bunch of games. He won a few dinky prizes and was over the moon.

We walked inside briefly to see the vendors and Brennan wanted to spin the wheel at the karate booth. He won three free karate classes, so I plan on taking him on Tues to try it out.

I only took a few pics with my phone. But it was a fun morning. Now he'll keep talking about it until it returns next year!

Bryce was so tired the whole time we were there, but just chilled out in the stroller. I don't think he ever made a single peep.

Brennan was most excited to ride the Ferris Wheel!

We ran into some friends and John rode this ride with Brennan and me.

Brennan wanted to play outside after his nap (or lack thereof), so I brought him out and we played baseball for a little bit. Love my little ball player!

And just for fun, here are a few pics from last year's Kids Karnival.

Best Buds

Bryce and Ringo are best buds. And their relationship is literally the only reason I am keeping Ringo around right now.

And they both have a lot of slobber...

A Check-up and a Meltdown

Today Brennan visited the dentist. Thankfully he loves going and is a great patient, so it was a super easy visit with a good report and no cavities. My friend Leighann was a great help and watched Bryce during the appointment. So far it had been a good morning; playtime at home, a great dental check-up, and Bryce had fun playing with his friend Jacob. I decided the boys and I would reward ourselves with Panera for lunch.

Unfortunately that is where the good morning ended. Bryce was crying the entire drive to Panera because he was tired. Once we arrived, I told Brennan he had to be an extra good boy because Bryce might be cranky. It turns out Bryce wasn't the one I needed to worry about. Brennan usually gets to pick out a cookie at Panera. He almost always picks the M&M cookie and the few times he's picked a seasonal cookie, he hasn't eaten it. Today he decided he wanted a seasonal flower cookie and when I told him no, he had a pretty epic meltdown.

Thankfully Brennan doesn't really throw fits and pretty much never in public. But today he had a nice little tantrum right in line at Panera. I was holding Bryce which only made things that much more difficult. And it wasn't bad enough that Brennan was crying about not getting the cookie he wanted, he would not stop grabbing the flower cookie from the basket. It was quite embarrassing.

I never even raised my voice though. I bent down to his level and told him I knew he was upset, but that he could have an M&M cookie or no cookie at all. I paid while I was still bent down to the ground trying to maintain a fake smile. The cashier then handed me a pager. I asked Brennan if he'd like to hold it, and he immediately stopped crying and said, "It's number 51" in his normal happy little voice. So happy that the lady paying beside us started laughing. Bipolar much?!?!

Thankfully the rest of the meal was fine. Bryce was great and Brennan got over his meltdown, but Lord have mercy I need a nap!

Oh and here's a picture. He looks so big in this picture from the dentist! Proud of my brave boy and will continue to focus on the positive moments. Growing up is tough!

Fun and Games

Yesterday was cold and today is rainy, but I'm thankful we haven't had any severe weather like so many have down south.  I am looking forward to some nice weather this weekend! Since it's another nasty day, after lunch the boys and I headed down to the basement to play for a bit. We have such a nice basement and don't use it as much as we should. We had lots of fun playing down there this afternoon though.

Brennan has been all about Easter egg hunts since well before Easter. They have them a lot at Cubbies because the kids like them so much and we've done a bunch since Easter here at home. I told him we could do one downstairs today, but then remembered an idea I saw last night in my Family Fun magazine, so we tried that instead. I spread a bunch of eggs out on the floor and gave him an addition problem. Then he had to go pick up that total number of eggs. He's been really into adding and this was a simple game for him to practice that concept.

I swear during the past week he looks so much bigger to me.

I like this picture because you can see how he used his fingers to finger out the answer to 5+2. He's shouting out, "Seven!" once he figured it out.

While Brennan was adding up eggs, Bryce decided he might have a future as a Red Sox baseball player. He found the ball on the floor and pulled out the matching bat from the toy box.

How cute would he look all decked out in Red Sox gear?!?

Then he pulled out all the T-ball stuff all by himself. We need to work on his form, but I like this series of action shots. Sorry some are blurry.

Melt my heart! I love when they actually get along!

We also spent some time shooting rockets! Brennan received this stomp rocket for his birthday and it's truly a great gift. If you're looking for a present for a boy, you should check this out on Amazon. It's so fun and can be used indoors or outdoors!

Sometimes rainy days aren't so bad after all!

Bouncing Fun!

Last night I was thinking about what the boys and I could do when we woke up. I really wanted to take them to the zoo, but once we were up the weather was cooler than I had hoped. We decided we'd go to the local aquarium because we can see some inside exhibits there, but when we started loading up the car, I realized how chilly it really was and we changed plans again. We were going to head down to Old Saybrook to an indoor playground of sorts called Stay and Play, but on our way there we changed our minds one more time and ended up going to the Bounce Fun Center in Clinton. We're so spontaneous!

I had taken the boys to the bounce place once before when Bryce was very tiny and just stayed in the Ergo the entire time. I was excited to try it again now that both boys could enjoy it and because Brennan has been much more adventurous and independent at the playground, so I was hoping to see the same here.

It was nice because I didn't even realize kids under three were free, so it was just $10 for Brennan. The facility is completely indoors, so it's perfect for a way too chilly for the 2nd to last day of April kind of day. Inside there are seven bounce houses, two which include slides. It took Brennan a little bit to warm up to it and remember he could climb the inflatable ladders by himself, but once he had success he had a great time. Bryce would spend some time in the bounce houses, but preferred to just walk around with random balls he'd find.

There is also a small arcade. Arcades are Brennan's favorite, so he spent his $2 he found in his Easter eggs on tokens to play games. Then there is a baby room of sorts upstairs with a gate, so we checked that out too. Both boys had fun pulling all the toys out and playing.

When we first arrived, there was only one other little boy there. After we came down from playing upstairs a few more families had arrived. We bounced a little more, cashed in our tickets for some prizes and headed home to eat lunch.

I was hoping both boys would be exhausted from playing hard all morning, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Brennan is already up from his nap and Bryce is talking in his crib instead of sleeping. Guess I'll have to try harder to wear them out next time.

Here are few pictures I snapped with my phone.

All Decked Out!

Kyle had some time off work last week and decided to tackle a project we've been talking about for some time now; redoing our deck. Our house is a raised ranch, so our deck is a second story deck that comes off of our kitchen. When we moved into our new construction house 7.5 years ago, the deck was completely untreated. We should've treated and stained it right away, but we didn't. About three years ago Kyle painted it, but that didn't hold up well, so it's been looking pretty rough. And the boards themselves were literally rough so it wasn't safe to go out on it without shoes.

Even though it is costly, we decided to install composite decking that will hopefully last and doesn't require upkeep. The stairs aren't done yet and Kyle will probably paint some of the underside of the deck, but I wanted to share the progress he made last week. I love it. Now I just need to convince him we need a patio set out there so we can enjoy dining al fresco this summer!

BEFORE:

MAKING PROGRESS:

AND MORE PROGRESS:

THE TOP IS DONE:

The difference is amazing! Kyle is also going to install a gate at the top of the deck stairs, so it's safe for the boys to play out there. 

Thankful for my handy hubby!

Brennan's Chore Chart

I wanted to share with you Brennan's Chore Chart. We've been using it for about two months now and it's working really well for us. For quite sometime I knew I wanted to create some kind of chore chart for Brennan, but wasn't exactly sure if he should get paid for them or just do them as a contribution to our family. I then had an epiphany one day when Brennan was asking for a new iPad game. He loves playing his iPad and there are so many great and educational apps for him to play. However, it was getting out of control how often he was asking and we were downloading new (mostly free) apps for him. I decided that he could earn a new iPad game on Fridays if he completed a certain number of chores during the week.

We are already on our second version of the chore chart. The first version didn't have quite as many chores and I kept thinking of more good ones for him to help with and created our current version. This picture doesn't really show a typical week. This past week was the first week Brennan didn't earn a game on Friday. Daddy was home most of this week, so our schedule was definitely more relaxed than normal and several days Brennan said he didn't want to do his chores. I kept reminding him that it was his choice, but he likely wouldn't earn a new game on Friday. He said he understood and once Friday rolled around he was fine not getting a new game for the week. I think we will be back on track this coming week with Daddy being back at work.

Brennan has chores he can do on Monday-Friday. He earns a check for each chore he completes each day. His daily chores are:

• make your bed
• dust the TV stand
• unload the dishwasher
• clean up toys
• feed fish
• dress yourself

Almost all of these require help from me. We complete quite a few of them first thing each morning. Once Brennan wakes up and uses the potty, he comes back into his room and helps me make his bed. I pull up the sheet and cover and he hands me all his pillows and stuffed animals. Next, we usually head to the kitchen and he helps unload the dishwasher. He loves pulling the clean silverware out of the dishwasher and helping me put that away. He also unloads the unbreakable dishes from the both the top and bottom racks. Then I sit him up on the counter and he gives some fish food to fish. So most days he's able to earn three quick checks within the first few minutes of waking up.

I put the 'dust the tv stand' chore on his list because our dang tv table gets so incredibly dusty and I was tired of dusting it almost every single day. So some days I'll spray dusting spray all along the top of the stand and Brennan comes behind me with a rag and wipes it all up. I debated putting 'clean up toys' on this list, because if Brennan makes a mess it is just a requirement that he cleans it up. I decided to include it though because Bryce makes huge messes and I often have Brennan help me clean those toys up too and that's when he earns a check.

Now that Brennan is four I am encouraging him to do more and more tasks independently. I have hindered him some in this area because it's usually faster for me to put his shoes on him than have him do it himself, but I've learned to slow down and make him try things on his own. He had absolutely no interest in even attempting to dress himself until I put it on the second version of the chore chart. He still likes some help with his shirts, but has become much more independent with his clothes now.

Since there are six possible chores each day and a total of five days, he has the opportunity to earn up to 30 checks. My next task was to come up with the number of checks needed to earn a new game. I decided on 20 checks because that was an average of four checks each day. Some days we don't run the dishwasher, so he won't earn that check. I don't pull out the dusting spray each day either (even though I probably need to), so 20 checks seemed like a good number.

Typically as Brennan is having iPad time during the week, an advertisement will pop up for some game and Brennan will say, "Mommy I want this game." Now my answer is super easy and I tell him that might be the game he wants to pick on Friday. So far only one game he has picked has cost money, all the rest have been free. We usually make him select two older games to delete from his iPad before downloading the new game.

I'm still interested in Brennan earning an allowance and teaching him about saving, giving, and spending, but for now this chore chart is working really well for us.